TCM Schedule for Thursday, September 11 -- Star of the Month: Kay Francis

[Staph]

This morning we get the four of the last Andy Hardy films, and the afternoon brings two Oscar-winners, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with the unique combination of Cary Grant and Shirley Temple, and Gigi with the incomparable Leslie Caron. This evening, we've got this month's star is the lovely Kay Francis. And blessedly, no jingoist, yeah-America films in any sort of phony "celebration" of September 11. Enjoy!


5:30am -- Festival of Shorts #26 (2000)
TCM promotes two comedy shorts with ventriloquist Edgar Bergan,

"The Eyes Have It" (1931)
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Christina Graver.
Dir: Alfred J. Goulding.
BW-10 mins

and "Africa Speaks...English" (1933)
Cast: Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy.
Dir: Roy Mack.
BW-12 mins

Northwestern University awarded Charlie McCarthy an honorary degree of "Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback". Edgar Bergen was an alumnus of the University.


6:00am -- The Courtship Of Andy Hardy (1942)
A teenager dates a girl whose parents' divorce is being decided by his father.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Donna Reed.
Dir: George B. Seitz.
BW-95 mins, TV-G

Andy gets shanghaied into dating Donna Reed so that his father the judge will bail him out after Andy steals a car. Andy Hardy -- Grand Theft Auto?


7:45am -- Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944)
A college boy has to cope with a pair of beautiful twins.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Bonita Granville.
Dir: George B. Seitz.
BW-107 mins, TV-G

MGM originally intended to continue the Hardy family pictures without Mickey Rooney, who was overseas in the Army. The New York Times reported in February 1945 that author Booth Tarkington had been hired by MGM to write a film story to feature Lewis Stone, Fay Holden and Sara Haden in their usual roles. The film was never made and Mickey Rooney was back by the time the next Hardy family film went before the cameras.


9:45am -- Love Laughs At Andy Hardy (1946)
A small-town boy returns to college after the war only to find his sweetheart engaged to another.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Bonita Granville.
Dir: Willis Goldbeck.
BW-93 mins, TV-G

Second to last of the 18 Andy Hardy films.


11:30am -- Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958)
In a sequel to the popular film series, Andy Hardy returns to Carvel to negotiate a land deal.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker.
Dir: Howard W. Koch.
BW-80 mins, TV-G

The last of the Andy Hardy films, made 12 years after Love Laughs at Andy Hardy, and intended to be the beginning of a new series, with Andy as the wise father.


1:00pm -- Small Town Girl (1936)
After marrying a drunken playboy, a young girl tries to capture his heart while he's sober.
Cast: Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, James Stewart.
Dir: William A. Wellman.
BW-106 mins, TV-G

Was originally set to star Jean Harlow as Kay and Robert Montgomery as Bob.


2:47pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: One Against The World (1939)
Cast: Jonathan Hale, Claire McDowell, Charles Middleton.
Dir: Fred Zinneman.
BW-11 mins

This Passing Parade short dramatizes the events surrounding the first invasive surgical operation performed in the United States, performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell on December 13, 1809.


3:00pm -- The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer (1947)
A teenage girl's crush on a playboy spells trouble, particularly when he falls for her older sister.
Cast: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple.
Dir: Irving Reis.
BW-95 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Sidney Sheldon (yes, that Sidney Sheldon!)

Memorable quote:
Richard Nugent: Hey, you remind me of a man.
Susan Turner: What man?
Richard Nugent: Man with the power.
Susan Turner: What power?
Richard Nugent: Power of hoodoo.
Susan Turner: Hoodoo?
Richard Nugent: You do.
Susan Turner: Do what?
Richard Nugent: Remind me of a man...

This nonsense dialogue was also used in Houseboat (1958).


4:39pm -- Short Film: One Reel Wonders: The Gay Parisian (1941)
In a Paris nightclub setting, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo performs to the music of Jacques Offenbach.
Cast: The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Leonide Massine, Milada Mladova.
Dir: Jean Negulesco.
C-20 mins

An article in The New York Times of 2 December 1941 states: "An invited audience of newspaper and magazine writers and others will attend the world premiere today of two Warner featurettes starring the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at Fefe's Monte Carlo. The films to be screened are "The Gay Parisian" with Léonide Massine, Milada Mladova and Frederic Franklin, and "Spanish Fiesta" with Massine, Tamara Toumanova and Franklin." It is doubtful there were any paying customers; the film was scheduled for release in 1942.


5:00pm -- Gigi (1958)
A Parisian girl is raised to be a kept woman but dreams of love and marriage.
Cast: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli.
C-116 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- William A. Horning, E. Preston Ames, Henry Grace and F. Keogh Gleason, Best Cinematography, Color -- Joseph Ruttenberg, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Cecil Beaton, Best Director -- Vincente Minnelli, Best Film Editing -- Adrienne Fazan, Best Music, Original Song -- Frederick Loewe (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) for the song "Gigi", Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- André Previn, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Alan Jay Lerner, and Best Picture

Features the song, "Say a Prayer for Me Tonight", which Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe had originally written for the 1956 stage musical "My Fair Lady," but which was deleted during out-of-town tryouts. Lerner was against including the song in "Gigi", but was effectively overruled by Loewe, producer Arthur Freed and director Vincente Minnelli. (The song contains the couplet, "'On to your Waterloo,' whispers my heart./ Pray I'll be Wellington, not Bonaparte" - arguably an odd sentiment for a French girl to express. In "My Fair Lady", the song was intended for Eliza Doolittle, who was, of course, English.)


7:00pm -- Private Screenings: Leslie Caron (1999)
Robert Osborne hosts this TCM original series featuring an intimate interview with the exquisite actress Leslie Caron.
Cast: Robert Osborne, Leslie Caron.
Dir: Tony Barbon.
C-47 mins, TV-G

Leslie Claire Margaret Caron was born on July 1, 1931. Her father, Claude Caron, was a French chemist, and her American-born mother, Margaret Petit, had been a ballet dancer back in the States during the 1920s. Leslie herself began taking dance lessons at age 11 until the Nazi occupation forced her and her brother to flee to Cannes with her grandparents. She later returned to Paris and attended the Convent of the Assumption. Continuing her dance training at the National Conservatory, she became a 16-year-old member of the Ballet des Champs-Élyées where she greatly impressed her teachers. Cast in the ballet "La Recontre" in 1948, Gene Kelly saw her in the production and was entranced. Luckily for her, he remembered that performance two years later when he returned to Paris in search for a dancing unknown to introduce in his newest musical film.


What's On Tonight: STAR OF THE MONTH: KAY FRANCIS


8:00pm -- Trouble In Paradise (1932)
A love triangle ignites trouble between two jewel theives and their intended victim.
Cast: Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch.
BW-82 mins, TV-G

The scenes in which Herbert Marshall is running up and down the stairs at Madame Colet's were done with a double who is only seen from the waist down. Mr. Marshall lost a leg in WWI and although it was almost impossible to notice that he used a prosthesis, he could not perform any action that called for physical agility.


9:30pm -- Cynara (1932)
Infidelity threatens a lawyer's marriage when his fling decides to steal him from his wife.
Cast: Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, Phyllis Barry.
Dir: King Vidor.
BW-78 mins

Based on a play and a novel, the film's obscure title comes from the refrain of an 1896 poem by Ernest Dowson, which was popular at the time: "I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion." (That stanza of the poem begins "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind...", inspiring the title of another 1930s novel and movie. ;-) )


11:00pm -- A Notorious Affair (1930)
A beautiful noblewoman gives up wealth and society for love of a two-timing musician.
Cast: Billie Dove, Basil Rathbone, Kay Francis.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon.
BW-67 mins, TV-G

Based on the play Fame, written by Audrey and Waverly Carter, which originally opened in London, England, in March, 1929.


12:15am -- The Feminine Touch (1941)
An author writing a book on jealousy discovers his wife is an expert on the subject.
Cast: Rosalind Russell, Don Ameche, Kay Francis.
Dir: W.S. Van Dyke II.
BW-98 mins, TV-G

According to one of the user's comments on IMDB, "Francis wears one hat that looks like a rendition of the Mickey Mouse Club ears, except with taller ears and the entire hat covered in fur. It was one of the funniest things in the movie."


2:00am -- Street of Women (1932)
A property developer is torn between his wife and his mistress.
Cast: Kay Francis, Roland Young, Alan Dinehart.
Dir: Archie Mayo.
BW-59 mins, TV-G

Film debut of Gloria Stuart, the older Rose in Titanic (1997).


3:00am -- Give Me Your Heart (1936)
A socialite has to give up the baby she bore to a married man.
Cast: Kay Francis, George Brent, Patric Knowles.
Dir: Archie Mayo.
BW-88 mins, TV-G

The married man is played by Patric Knowles, best known (to me, at least) as Will Scarlett to Errol Flynn's Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).


4:30am -- Stolen Holiday (1937)
A Paris fashion model marries a fortune hunter to protect him from the law.
Cast: Claude Rains, Kay Francis, Ian Hunter.
Dir: Michael Curtiz.
BW-80 mins, TV-G

The movie is loosely based on the French bond scandal involving Serge Alexandre Stavisky. After the fraud was discovered he either committed suicide or was murdered by the French police.

[Staph]

1. Gigi

Often called the last great movie musical, Gigi (1958), which won nine Oscars®, including Best Picture, was certainly the most unlikely. Based on a novella by the French novelist, Colette, it's the story of a young girl in Belle Epoque Paris who is raised and educated to go into the family business of being a courtesan. The film was also the last hurrah for the greatest creative team in the history of the movie musical: the Freed Unit at MGM.

Written in 1944, Colette's novel had been made into a French film in 1951, and into a Broadway play in 1953, starring Audrey Hepburn. Soon after, Producer Arthur Freed became interested in turning it into a musical, but he hesitated, fearing that the censors would never approve. It took several years to settle the problems with the censors, then Freed began assembling his team: Vincente Minnelli, director of some of Freed's most successful musicals (Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), An American in Paris, 1951); writer-lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and his composer partner, Frederick Loewe, who currently had the biggest hit on Broadway, My Fair Lady; music supervisor Andre Previn; and production and costume designer Cecil Beaton. It was as starry a group as the one in front of the camera.

Freed wanted Audrey Hepburn to repeat her stage success as Gigi, but she declined. Fortunately, Leslie Caron, who played the part in London, was available. Lerner had written the part of the world-weary Gaston with British actor Dirk Bogarde in mind, knowing that Bogarde had a fine singing voice. Bogarde was eager to do the film, but was unable to get free of his contract with British producer J. Arthur Rank. Louis Jourdan proved an inspired second choice. Lerner had long admired Maurice Chevalier, and it was Lerner's idea to build up the character of Gaston's uncle Honore (barely mentioned in the novel) and tailor it to Chevalier's talents.

Chevalier's performance as the charming boulevardier was a career high note, and everyone expected him to be nominated for an Academy Award. When he wasn't, the Academy corrected the oversight by awarding him an honorary Oscar®.

Shot on location in Paris, Gigi was a worldwide hit....everywhere but in France. It was nominated for nine Oscars, and won all of them, a record at the time. It remains an elegant landmark of the Golden Age of the movie musical.

Producer: Arthur Freed
Director: Vincente Minnelli, Charles Walters (uncredited)
Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner, Colette (novel), Anita Loos (play)
Production Design: Cecil Beaton
Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg, Ray June (uncredited)
Costume Design: Cecil Beaton
Film Editing: Adrienne Fazan
Original Music: Frederick Loewe
Principal Cast: Leslie Caron (Gigi), Maurice Chevalier (Honore Lachaille), Louis Jourdan (Gaston Lachaille), Hermione Gingold (Madame Alvarez), Eva Gabor (Liane d'Exalmans), Jacques Bergerac (Sandomir), Isabel Jeans (Aunt Alicia).
C-116m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video.

by Margarita Landazuri

[CBHagman]

2. I didn't know about the Dirk Bogarde story.

He certainly would have made for an interesting choice. I would have liked to have seen his take on the role, and heard his singing.

I have seen Gigi more times than I can possibly say, from childhood on up. Of course I was completely confused by the ending when I was a kid (Oh, those relatively innocent times, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and all).